Ragtag Giggagon

This post is part of the Blogging from A-Z Challenge for the month of April: 26 posts over 30 days. Thousands of bloggers and websites are taking part. More details here . The few ebooks I've had the pleasure of reading, such as collections of Taylor Eaton 's flash fiction, Charles Peterson Sheppard's action thriller The Specialist , Serina Hartwell's YA fantasy book Hidden and Ming Holden's amazing nonfiction The Survival Girls have not been hampered by the format in which I read them.  In fact, the ebook makes any book reviewer's job, and arguably any prolific book reader's life, far easier  - the ability to run a quick character search may confirm that character's first appearance, for example. There are times I've looked through my bookshelf for a book, and, after finding the novel, biography or history that I had read months or years earlier, sought a specific passage that I wanted to re-read. The results have been mixed in many of the...

Frankie Gaffney writes in a form of Hiberno-English – Dublin English – made famous by Roddy Doyle. While the excellent Mr Doyle’s writing can be sparse and dialogue-driven (particularly in his early Barrytown trilogy, including The Commitments), Mr Gaffney’s style is somewhat richer. However, Gaffney’s dialogue, like Doyle's, is striking in its comedy. A conversation with his hero Shane's mother before Shane starts college is wonderful; she asks him if he needs his “copies” (copybooks) and other stationery. The scene is very vivid, both unique and typical in respects, evocative of many an 'Irish mammy'. Dublin Seven is published by Liberties Press . A recent review of this book suggested there was too much sex in it. Out of the 300 odd pages, perhaps half a dozen are entirely devoted to shenanigans, and Gaffney won’t be winning any Bad Sex awards. (Although perhaps he wouldn’t mind a Bad Sex Award if it shifted a few units.)  Perhaps 50 pages (or maybe more) cover what ...

10 Questions with Author and Journalist Robert Isenberg Virginia Woolf called her novel Orlando "a writer's holiday". It seems Arizona-based writer Robert Isenberg felt similarly when he started writing his collection of short stories set in the 1920s, featuring his heroine, Pittsburgh-based 1920s paranormal investigator Elizabeth Crowne. Robert Isenberg It was self-indulgent, something to do at 10pm at night, and I was really enjoying the writing process. It contained elements I love: The 1920s, a female hero, a pulpy aesthetic. But the more substantial it became, the more I realized that it was coagulating into a novel-sized work. But I didn't think it would be accepted through traditional publishing channels for any number of reasons. Firstly, it's historical. Secondly, it's a collection of short stories - these are not a form that is usually accepted by publishing houses, unless you're Stephen King. 1. I know you’ve done some entertainment journalism ...

My sister bought me a lovely pair of socks one year for Christmas instead of a second set of earphones. The socks had a bald man's head on them with a caption that said "I'm not bald, I'm just taller than my hair!" I always thought it strange that the socks (manufactured for one's feet) should carry this message pertaining to a hairless head, at the other end of the body. Needless to say, there are too many holes in the socks for me to comfortably wear them any more. But I hit upon a great idea - I brought them to a jewellery manufacturer the other day, and had the pair attached to hoop earrings that dangle from my lobes.  Now my socks convey their wonderfully self-deprecating message much closer to my head, and I no longer have to expose my ankles and look like a complete idiot in order to get a laugh!